"Fact: F is for fart. G is for Gorilla fart. H is for Huge Gorilla Fart."

Kimya Dawson - Alphabutt

(K Records: 2008)

Kimya Dawson has released an album that....your kid needs to hear!!??!!

It's true.  But come on.  You knew it was coming, I mean, if her work with Antsy Pants wasn't foreboding enough, she was pregnant you know.  It would be weird if she didn't write songs about children now.  Alas, rest your weary musical fears, it's still the old Kimya.

Dawson has been around for a fairly long time, releasing some indie gems with Adam Green as The Moldy Peaches.  Yet while the Peaches did some really great things as a band, for me the driving force in the band was always Dawson’s witty lyrics, rambunctious energy, and simplicity in style and delivery.  Her fame “skyrocketed” with the release of the movie, Juno, for which she allowed several songs to be used (the film features both her solo work and work with her other projects, including The Moldy Peaches and Antsy Pants).  I use the term “skyrocketed” only because in most serious music circles, The Moldy Peaches a.k.a. Kimya and Adam Green had already been digested, along with to an extent, K Records, as one of the great “hidden treasures” of the anti-folk genre.  But I digress...

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" I Left This Bullwhip With The Night Stand "

Swan Lake – Enemy Mine  (Jagjaguwar: March 2009)

For those not in the know, Swan Lake is a trio of Canadian indie musicians hailing from 3 (or 4 or 5) of the best rock groups currently populating the Great White North:  Spencer Krug, of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown; Dan Bejar of Destroyer and the New Pornographers; and Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes.  The unlikely triumvirate emerged in 2008 with their debut album, Beast Moans, a Schumpeterian result of their distinctive and chaotic styles.  The album is thrush with the kind of apocalyptic gothic imagery you would expect to encounter at the event horizon of hell.  That being said, Enemy Mine offers the same type of style and imagery but it is infinitely more subtle, and one might say, more careful in its total outward perception.


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“ Get smart with your smartness. Too busy survivin’ to argue ‘bout Darwin, darlin’ ”

Mos Def – The Ecstatic (Downtown: June, 2009)

In university I became more interested in hip-hop but I would not for a minute consider myself anywhere close to an expert on hip-hop music. I was more interested with the things that surrounded hip-hop music, i.e. the history of the oppressed, inner-city realities, and the attitudes of (predominantly) young men. Needless to say, I always put a priority on hip-hop that delivered sharp and insightful lyrics, was politically charged, and told a story rather than had "killer sample." There were many artists that I truly enjoyed for this reason alone, Mos Def being one of them.

Mos Def is a somewhat polarizing figure that much of mainstream society simply cannot handle. He is outspoken and articulate (almost enough in itself), he is a Muslim (again), and he is politically conscious hip-hop artist with a chip on his soldier (and for good reason). He has appeared in feature films, on talk shows, and in several television series but it’s not his work on the screen that is most impressive. His most inspiring work involves his collaboration with Talib Kweli as Blackstar and his own amazing solo work, the latest of which is called The Ecstatic...


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Apology for Belatedness

Well, there hasn't been a new post in a while. It will be like that for a little while longer still.
I have been in Korea for the last several months and it's increasingly hard to get good music here without stealing it. Stay tuned dear friends...I have several reviews to add and some other stuff. Continue Reading...